Summer internships are all about gaining the skills and experience needed to thrive in the future. But what if interns could use those skills to make a difference right now?

SAS’ 2026 summer interns did exactly that through Data for Good, a long-running SAS program that uses data, analytics and employee expertise to support communities and nonprofit organizations.

SAS wanted to build on last year’s project with Urban Ministries of Wake County, where interns analyzed data and packed over 400 hygiene kits for those in need. This expansion gave interns the chance to use the data skills that they learned over the summer, all while helping their local community.

With that project being such a success, SAS decided to bring back the Intern Data for Good project with a new goal in mind. This time, they worked with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Wake & Johnston Counties to prepare students for school, aligning with the organization's focus on raising the next generation of leaders.

Since the Boys & Girls Clubs stay busy operating ten different clubs throughout two counties, SAS stepped in to run a donation drive for the Club’s Back to School Community Day event while also analyzing data to predict the placement of future Boys & Girls Clubs in the surrounding areas.

This way, the project went beyond the drive – it developed a strategy for the Club to grow over the years to come. Here’s how each team contributed to the drive's success.

Finding the right place to make a difference

The Community Insights team focused on one central question: Where could a future Boys & Girls Clubs location have the greatest impact around Benson, North Carolina?

To answer it, the interns looked at community needs from two perspectives. The first focused on demographics, including household characteristics, family populations and economic conditions. The second focused on schools and accessibility, including student needs, food insecurity and transportation.

For the demographic analysis, interns combined publicly available geographic and population data in SAS^® Visual Analytics. Their analysis identified areas with high concentrations of families and economic need, including one census tract where nearly 18% of residents live below the poverty line and another with nearly 1,000 families.

The school and accessibility analysis added another layer. Interns combined school and census data to examine student populations, free lunch eligibility and transportation patterns across the community.

The findings revealed widespread need. Approximately 4,000 of Benson's 4,100 students qualify for free lunch, with every school reporting an eligibility rate above 98%. The analysis also identified opportunities to locate programming near major transportation routes, potentially improving accessibility for families.

Learning from the families served

To better understand the community's needs, the Event Survey Team created a bilingual (English and Spanish) survey for this event's attendees that can be used for future events. The team collaborated with the Boys & Girls Clubs to ensure the survey was closely aligned with their mission.

The aim of this survey was to provide insights into who the event is reaching, how families learned about it and what school supplies are most beneficial to ultimately set the Boys & Girls Clubs up for success.

By refining the survey based on stakeholder feedback, the team made it quick and easy to complete. Ultimately, this will strengthen future outreach efforts, improve event planning, and provide valuable data to guide future programming for years to come – a first of its kind for the Boys & Girls Clubs.

Driving donations through marketing

As all the behind-the-scenes work began to wrap up, the Donations Marketing team got to work spreading the word around SAS. Prior to the donation drive launch, the team designed graphics to display around campus and wrote content for internal newsletters. Interns even got to put their networking skills to use, raising awareness of the drive and encouraging those around them to donate.

During the drive itself, the team helped raise awareness and document the impact of the school supply drive by tracking incoming donations and promoting it further across SAS. They created a dashboard to monitor contributions from both physical collection boxes and the Amazon Wish List. They also laid the groundwork for future interactive displays that could showcase donation progress across campus.

Making every donation count

The purpose of the donation collection team was to go around SAS' campus and pick up all the donations from the different bins located within each building. They followed the collection by then logging in the data that accounted for the date, the donation item, the item quantity, the building the item was donated in and the price of the donated goods within a spreadsheet.

The collection team also accepted donations through an Amazon Wish List and tracked contributions across the SAS campus. Buildings C and R generated the most donations, with Building R seeing a notable increase as the drive progressed. Altogether, employees donated 463 packs of school supplies, totaling 16,864 individual items.

Using data collected by the donation collection team, the donation analysis team analyzed it in the SAS Visual Analytics dashboard and then combined the best approaches to quantify the total contribution, items collected and total costs. These numbers show what approaches worked best throughout this drive and what methods or locations would be best to consider for future donations.

Creating a lasting impact

While the school supply drive will support students heading back to school, the project’s impact extends far beyond that. Interns developed resources that can continue to enhance future planning long after the summer ends. Through dashboards, survey data and community insights, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Wake & Johnston Counties now have more information, ultimately helping the organization to maximize the impact of future initiatives.

"We just want to see those smiles on both the students’ and parents’ faces,” said DJ Jones, Chief Operating Officer of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Wake and Johnston Counties. “We’re really proud to be a part of this project and knowing they don’t have to worry about school supplies because the Boys & Girls Clubs are helping take care of those needs."

For the interns, the experience was about much more than just building technical skills. It was an opportunity to work with other teams and alongside a nonprofit partner while seeing how analytics can be applied to real-world challenges.

Each team played an important role in the project's shared mission. Whether it was designing the surveys and analyzing trends or organizing donations and communicating the project's impact, their combined work reflects how different skills and perspectives can create a meaningful and lasting impact.

We just want to see those smiles on both the students’ and parents’ faces. We're really proud to be a part of this project and knowing they don’t have to worry about school supplies because the Boys & Girls Clubs are helping take care of those needs. DJ Jones, COO, Boys & Girls CLUB of WAKE AND JOHNSTON COUNTIES

By using technology and analytics to create positive change in the communities where employees live and work, this project also reflects the broader mission of SAS' Data for Good. By combining data-driven insights with a commitment to service, the program demonstrates that meaningful change can be achieved through both innovation and collaboration.

As the program continues to grow, projects like this demonstrate how data can be a catalyst for change when paired with people who are passionate about making a difference.

Learn about more ways that SAS is using data and analytics in meaningful ways to solve humanitarian issues